Warriors: What Lies Ahead - Eternal Cold
by Neo Emolga
Summary: A small kit from Twolegplace, left by its mother on the edges of StormClan's territory, only spent a few days with the Clan. Moons later, the kit dreams of Clan life and leaves her Twoleg home. Leafbare has struck and passed, yet the snow continues to fall... Will this cold last forever? Rated T


_Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors._

_Prologue_

"Hurry, Ashcloud, the sooner we finish the border patrol, the sooner we get back to camp!"

Ashcloud huffed in annoyance, shaking more snow from his black furred pelt before bounding after his Clanmate Burnsky, a tan furred tom with ginger patches.

"I don't see why we always check this border," Stoneheart meowed from next to him. "The only thing on this border is the lake that lies between us and Twolegplace. Kittypets aren't likely to cross the frozen ice."

"We still need to check," Burnsky argued as a tiny mew filled the air. "Did you hear that?"

Ashcloud twitched his ears, barely catching the mew a second time. "It sounds like a kit."

He hurried past Burnsky in the direction of the mew, somewhat stunned to see a tiny little kit stumbled its way through the snow, shaking from head to tail. The small kit was golden brown in color and had silver tabby stripes stretching from one side across her back to the other side. The kits feathery tail was tucked down and it peered at him with icy blue eyes.

"Easy, little one," he murmured, snatching her up by the scruff.

"Did you find it?" Burnsky asked as he bounded over. "Well, look at that."

"She's tiny," Stoneheart meowed as he caught up. "Can't be more than two or three moons old.

"She's also freezing," Burnsky meowed as he glanced at the shaking kit. "We should head back to camp now so that Oakstep can look her over."

The three toms turned from the shoreline and padded into the trees that dominated a majority of StormClan's territory. As they ran through the forest, ducking under bushes and leaping over fallen trees, Ashcloud couldn't help but wonder where the kit had come from. Had she wandered into their territory from another Clan, or had she crossed the frozen lake from Twolegplace? The clearing in camp was nearly empty, save for a single mousy brown she-cat dropping a piece of prey onto the fresh-kill pile. She looked up at the arrival of the small patrol and her eyes immediately landed on the kit.

"Ashcloud, is that a kit?" she meowed as she hurried over, taking the small bundle from him.

Ashcloud nodded to his mate. "It is. We found her on the lake border. Poor little scrap is freezing."

Robinfur nodded and turned, immediately heading toward the nursery. She glanced back at her mate before she entered the nursery, flicking her tail in the direction of the medicine cat den. Ashcloud purred and padded over to the medicine cat den to fetch Oakstep. Inside the nursery was warm and the sound of kits playing hit Robinfur's ears.

"Robinfur?" a gold furred she-cat with white stripes raised her head. "What - is that a kit?"

Lightpelt scrambled to sit up in her nest as Robinfur padded over and set the small kit down. Lightpelt stared at the kit for a moment before licking the kit furiously to try and warm her up. Robinfur glanced at Dewkit, Copperkit and Bluekit as the three kits tossed a mossball back and forth between them. Bluekit was the first to notice the new arrival and bound over.

"Who's that, Lightpelt?" he squeaked, his blue fur fluffing up.

"I don't know, Bluekit," his mother answered.

"What's your name?" Bluekit asked the kit.

She blinked her blue eyes at the kit before hesitantly answering, "Fallon."

"Fallen?" Bluekit squeaked. "What kinda name is that?"

"Fal-lon," the kit, Fallon, corrected. "But I like Fallen better."

"Then we'll call you Fallen!" Bluekit purred. "Wanna play mossball?"

The kit tilted her head to look up at Lightpelt and Robinfur, who nodded and she bounded over to play with Bluekit and his siblings. The two older she-cats exchanged a glance before putting their heads together and speaking quietly about the strange kit that had stumbled into their territory.

_**W:WLABO-EC**_

Fallon spent a quarter moon with the cats of StormClan. She had made good friends with Bluekit and his siblings, Dewkit and Copperkit. She even got along with Owlpaw, one of the apprentices. Rowanpaw, Owlpaw's brother, tolerated her when she would pepper him with questions about what it was like training, but Crowpaw, Owlpaw's other brother, would simply ignore her as if she didn't exist. Sometimes she would visit Spottedfur, StormClan's only elder and they would hear incredible stories about past battles with the rival Clans and learn more about the warrior code.

On the day she left StormClan, she had been listening to Spottedfur telling the kits about StarClan. The old she-cat's words echoed in her ears as she and her mother, a kittypet named Vixie, crossed the frozen lake to return to their Twoleg home. Vixie had given no reason for her need to cross the lake into Clan territory, she merely said she had someone she needed to see and now that was done so they could go home. StormClan had been reluctant to let Fallon go with a mother who had left her, but Fallon felt a sense of loyalty to her mother and knew she had to go.

_StarClan? _Spottedfur's rusty purr echoed her ears. _Why, StarClan are our warrior ancestors, Fallon. StarClan is where all the good cats go when they die. Every time a warrior dies, a new star appears in Silverpelt, the stars that shine above us in the sky. Leaders like Nettlestar receive their nine lives from StarClan, and medicine cats like Oakstep get to walk with StarClan in dreams to interpret signs and omens our warrior ancestors send them. We're very lucky to have StarClan to watch over us._

Fallon glanced over her shoulder across the lake. She would never forget StormClan. She knew one day she would go back.


End file.
